Once upon a time, there was a girl who started her second
semester at Cornell last week. I must
say, I'm feeling pretty motivated, which makes me really happy because that
doesn't usually happen to me. I actually
have done all of my readings and went through my planner and wrote down all my
assignment due dates and readings so I don't have to flip between all my
syllabus' (syllabi? I'm not an English major...). Rereading over that last sentence
I must admit, I feel like a nerd, but trust me, I'm kindof a bum. The name Cornell means...not as much… when
used next to my name because it’s essentially an oxymoron. And like jumbo
shrimp and baby grands and pregnant nuns, "Christina goes to Cornell"
is a bit of a preposterous statement.
They probably admitted me because of my shining personality and threat
to become a winter weather car test driver.
That's Cornell. Always lookin'
for diversity.
Story of the day: The other day while reading Food,
Farming, and Faith by Gary Fick (who happens to actually be my professor
for the class I'm reading it for), I was in shock as I read the ending of the
preface. Now most people don't actually
read the preface of any book, but in this book, it's important to do so (And
also in A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, but that’s a different story
altogether). Just a little background
for you, Professor Fick is my favorite professor from last semester, and I
decided to take his Food, Farming, and Personal Beliefs seminar this semester
where we study his book, along with the idea of appealing to people in
agriculture who have faith and integrate such into their work. The idea is that you need to essentially
speak the same "language" as the people you work with, but if you
don't understand the way they live or their faith, then what progress will you
make?
Tangent about my Professor, he’s a great guy and role model
of the Christian faith. I go to a prayer
meeting within my “college” within the university which is the College of Ag.
And Life Sciences (this is getting confusing), but he’s generally present at
these prayer meetings. He also spoke at
a small dinner I went to about the history of Christianity at Cornell (in a nut
shell). He knows his stuff, and I’m
really happy to be able to have him as a professor, being that he’s retiring in
the near future.
Anyhow, back to the story, as I was reading the preface, I
was astounded as I read this passage in the midst of his acknowledgements: "Finally, a group of eleven students
read and discussed a draft of the text as a special course I taught at
Cornell. They are..." and he goes
on to list eleven students, one of which is his son, another, Collin Haight.
Tangent: Interesting fact (and reason why this astounded me), Collin Haight went
to my high school and attended Cornell as well. I did a little research when writing this and
found that he had a triple major, which is very impressive. Unfortunately, Collin died in a farming
accident my freshman year of high school, in 2007. Since then, his family has started Collin
Haight Foundation and grants and scholarships are given by his family to
individuals or groups pursuing goals similar to Collin's. Jake and I both received a scholarship from
the foundation at graduation. For more
information about Collin, the website of the foundation is http://www.collinhaight.com. I encourage you to visit it and go through
some of the pages and pictures. =]
Moral of the story, READ THE PREFACE! Jus’kiddin.
Read it if you feel the need to, but it was really awesome to see that
in the book and be able to share it with Mrs. Haight when I updated her about
my previous semester at Cornell. So, if
you ever wonder what I’m doing at college, I’m probably busy reading prefaces
or being at prayer meetings or walking the 38,472,048 miles I have to walk on a
given day. Give or take.
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